“Alyaksandr Lukashenka had a telephone conversation with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. The sides briefed each other on the situation in Belarus and Armenia, discussed problematic issues within the framework of the CSTO,” the office of the Belarusian president said.
According to official Minsk, Pashinian informed Lukashenka about the situation along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and “possible ways of its development.”
The Armenian government has not yet released an official statement on that phone call.
The phone talk between the two leaders comes days after a fresh escalation along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in which 13 troops were killed during clashes.
Armenia is a member of the Russia-led CSTO, a defense pact of six former Soviet countries that also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
At the height of the recent border escalation on November 16 Armenia publicly asked Russia to provide assistance in defending its borders and sovereign territory against what Yerevan described as Azerbaijani aggression.
In an interview with Armenia’s Public Television that day Armen Grigorian, secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, said that Yerevan considered that the border crisis could first of all be solved with the assistance of Russia and the CSTO. At the same time, the senior official did not rule out a scenario when the Armenian government would consider turning to “other partners” as well.
After hours of fighting, later on November 16 Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a ceasefire mediated by Russia.
The announcement of the ceasefire followed Pashinian’s phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu’s separate phone calls with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts.
Two days later, on November 18, Pashinian revealed new proposals from Russia’s Defense Ministry on the demarcation and delimitation of the Soviet-era border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. He said the proposals were acceptable to Yerevan. Baku did not respond to the proposals immediately.
On Saturday, Armenia and Azerbaijan confirmed that the leaders of the two countries had agreed to meet on the sidelines of the European Union’s Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels on December 15 following an offer made by President of the European Council Charles Michel who was in contact with both sides during the recent border escalation.
The announcement was followed by a phone call between Pashinian and Putin on Sunday in which the two sides, according to the Kremlin, discussed “the situation in the region and measures aimed at stabilizing the situation in the context of the agreements reached on Nagorno-Karabakh on November 9, 2020 and January 11, 2021.”